Rivermen face ghosts of April

The Peoria Rivermen would be forgiven if they chose to forget April 13, 2012.

But they might be better served if they remembered every moment of one of the most profound losses in franchise history. Especially with the Charlotte Checkers coming into Carver Arena for games Saturday and Sunday.

The Peoria Rivermen would be forgiven if they chose to forget April 13, 2012.

But they might be better served if they remembered every moment of one of the most profound losses in franchise history. Especially with the Charlotte Checkers coming into Carver Arena for games Saturday and Sunday.

“Guys who were here last year know the impact of that game,” said Rivermen veteran center Adam Cracknell, who captained the 2011-12 Rivermen. “That game stung. It hurt for a long time. No matter what guys say, there are games now and then you’d like to have back, and that was one of them.”

That April 13 game was against Charlotte. It was the regular-season home finale. Fan Appreciation Night. Peoria was fighting neck-and-neck with Charlotte and Rochester to the final hours of the season for the final playoff berth in the Western Conference.

In came the Checkers, who had slid down the stretch with just 8 wins in 25 games. But four of those wins were against Peoria. And on this night, they not only beat the Rivermen — 6-1 — but shattered the franchise.

Rivermen fans booed on Fan Appreciation Night. They booed their team to the locker room after the second period ended, booed throughout the third and booed after the game.

The team missed the playoffs for the fourth time in six seasons.

“It’s the most disappointing game of my coaching career,” then-Rivermen head coach Jared Bednar said. “I’m sure it’s high up there with some of our players, too.

“It’s a tough feeling. But we put ourselves in this situation.”

Two months later Bednar was gone, yielding to new Rivermen head coach Dave Allison and new assistant coach Scott Allen.

Six of the 20 Rivermen players in the lineup that night moved on, too. Charlotte, meanwhile, returns this weekend with 14 players still on its roster who were on the ice that night.

Cracknell scored Peoria’s lone goal in that game. “What a disheartening effort,” he said in its aftermath. “It wasn’t good enough. Not nearly. ... It was embarrassing how we played.”

And on Thursday, 195 days later?

“We weren’t even close in that game,” Cracknell said. “Guys who were here last year know the impact it had on us. We learned how important every game is.”

Charlotte, by the way, missed the playoffs, too. But if nothing else, a rivalry was born that night. Charlotte’s splendid defenseman, Bobby Sanguinetti, was asked after the game why his team was able to beat Peoria four times in the stretch when it seemingly couldn’t beat anyone else.

He pointed to an early February game in which the Rivermen physically dominated the Checkers and pushed them around for a 5-2 victory, noting that perhaps it generated bad blood and that his team never forgot it.

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The Rivermen would do well to remember April 13, too.

In the meantime, they face a rugged three-game weekend — with powerful Chicago here on Friday and then the two Charlotte games.

“New coaches, some new faces in the locker room, and we have a different understanding of the system and what needs to be done,” Cracknell said. “Guys are learning roles, gaining confidence in each other, trying to find their groove.

“This is a big weekend for us. We want to get some teams behind us in the standings early.”

Dave Eminian covers the Rivermen for the Journal Star. Reach him at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @icetimecleve.